A  Land-Lover   and  His   Land 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


ROBERT  ERNEST  COWAN 


A  LAND  LOVER  AND 
HIS  LAND 


F  R  O  M     THE     NEW      YORK     AND     B  E  I)  F  O  R  I)      ROAD 

A     FAMILY     PROCESSION 

DOROTHY     SELLS     IN     FRONT  — 

AUTO      DISTANCED 


A  LAND  LOVER 
AND  HIS  LAND 


BY 


MARTHA   McCULLOCH-WILLIAMS 

AUTHOR  OF  "NEXT  TO  THE  GROUND,"  "FIELD  FARINGS,"  "THE  PIANNER  MARES' 
"AN  ADDED  STARTER,"  ETC. 


'A  great,  Irroad  province  of  green  fur- 
row and  plowed  furrow,  between  the 
old  house  and  the  city  of  the  world." 


— JEFFERIES 


PRIVATELY   PUBLISHED 
ARMONK,   WESTCHESTER   COUXTY,  NEW  YORK 

MDCcrcix 


Private   Limited  Edition    of 
Two  Hundred  qfw/iic/i  this  in 

Number      -1-J-  • 


pirns.iiit  Press 
Onrnslnira.   Pf  niisrlu.iiii.i 


wl  I  TJ,.,,rinted  in  part  from  Suburitan  Life 

B>    RL.IJAH    \\.ShLLS  Courtly  of  th«-  Publisher 


oc 

«£ 
or 

CO 


A  LAND-LOVER  AND 
HIS  LAND 


FOREWORD 


J504992 


THE    WAKING   FARM 

'T'O  battle  with  the  dimming  stars 

Light-lances  leap  along  the  hills; 
Safe  in  a  tree  beside  the  bars 

A  robin,  waking,  cheerily  trills. 
Not  yet  the  sun,  not  yet  the  stir — 

Gray  dew  lies  lucent  on  the  grass ; 
And  huddled  weanlings  drowsing  chir-r, 

As  stealthy  vagrant  footfalls  pass. 

V/^ET  roses  white,  and  roses  red, 

Flash  star-wise  out  from  green -wreathed  gloom, 
And  vines,  in  tendriled  curtains  spread, 

Are  'broidered  all  with  purple  bloom. 
Alike  the  low  leaf  and  the  high 

Dance  merrily  in  ruffling  air, 
And  one  lone  lily  breathes  her  sigh 

Of  incense,  like  a  nun  at  prayer. 

TN  wafts  the  earth-scent,  fine  and  faint, 

And,  subtle  as  a  maiden^s  mind, 
Rises  to  make  us  know  the  plaint 

Of  Eve—with  Eden  left  behind. 
But  hark  the  hoof-beats!     Down  the  mead, 

A  frolic  foal,  in  plunging  run, 
Neighs  to  his  dam  with  lifted  head, 

And  bids  her  greet  the  rising  sun. 


FOREWORD 

THE  farm's  reason  of  being  you  will  find 
further  on.  The  book's  reason  of  being,— 
that  is  another,  quite  another  guitar.  Because, 
in  matter  meant  for  the  public  eye,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  tell  the  whole  truth.  Don't  be  fright- 
ened ladies — this  deponent  is  no  reformer. 
Instead,  one  of  the  unregenerate, — but  that 
is  neither  here  in  the  foreword,  nor  there,  at 
the  farm.  The  farm  is  a  very  wonderful  place, 
full  of  flowers  and  fruit,  and  all  delights;  but 
you  can't  say  in  cold  print  to  a  callous  public 
that  its  finest  flower  is  kindliness,  its  finest 
fruit,  rare  good  deeds. 

But  you,  the  elect  who  are  to  receive  this 
vagrant  record,  must  hear,  mark  and  inwardly 
digest  that  such  is  the  fact.  Witness  this:  I, 
who  had  no  other  claim  than  lonely  grief — I 
was  no  more  than  a  friend  to  the  farm-people's 
kinsfolk — was  carried  there,  made  royally  wel- 
come, and  comforted  with  the  good  green 
things  that  are  my  dearest  delight.  Not  once, 
9] 


F          O          R  E          W          O  R          D 

but  over  and  over.  Naturally,  the  place  has 
grown  on  me,  until  I  love  it  hardly  less  than 
its  pastors  and  masters.  I  have  been  made  free 
of  it, — to  range  the  field-sides,  roam  the  woods, 
even  let  know,  on  the  side  as  it  were,  that  if  I 
hooked  a  trout  surreptitiously  nobody  would 
look  very  cross.  I  am  even  permitted  to  catch 
teeny,  weeny  chicks.  A  stretch  of  grace  that, 
—which  would,  I  fear,  be  beyond  me,  were  the 
chicks  my  very  own. 

There  is  but  one  thing  better  than  the  farm 
proper — namely,  the  indwelling  soul  and  spirit 
of  it.  There  is  no  over- doing,  —  everything 
indeed  hits  the  Irishman's  "middle  extreme," 
the  fine  line  betwixt  too  much  and  not  enough. 
This  spirit  runs  from  least  to  greatest,  from 
the  big  boss,  Mr.  Elijah  W.  Sells  himself, 
through  Dorothy,  she-who-must-be-obeyed, 
pet  Marjorie,  who  ought  to  be  "fed  on  the 
roses,  and  laid  in  the  lilies  of  life,"  Patricia 
Salome,  the  dachshund,  who  beheads  little 
chickens  instead  of  John  the  Baptist,  to  Mrs. 
Mabel  Sells — the  elect  lady  by  whose  good 
leave  I,  too,  catch  chickens. 

[10 


STONE     WALL,     SWEET     WILLIAMS, 
AND     ANOTHER     WILLIAMS 


CANTERBURY     HELLS     A-RINGING 


FOREWORD 

You  see  the  reflex  of  this  kindliness  in  all 
the  farm  people.  Such  pampered,  petted  beasts 
as  live  here  ought  to  be  happy  enough  to  die. 
After  seeing  how  they  are  pampered  and 
petted,  my  greatest  regret  is  that  I  did  not 
know  enough  to  be  born  a  creature  with  such 
owners.  But  if  these  divagations  keep  up,  I 
shall  never  get  anywhere  in  my  story.  It 
meant  to  be  the  primest  proper  story,  of  how 
some  excellent  good  bi- plane  people  —  they 
have  wings  for  city  and  country — rescued  a 
waif  from  the  red  scathe  and  racket  of  a  New 
York  Fourth  of  July,  and  bore  her  off  where 
even  the  neighbors'  firecrackers  ceased  from 
troubling,  and  the  weary  sat  up  and  took 
notice  that  they  might  weary  of  rest. 

Rather  that  they  might  have  wearied  else- 
where— at  the  farm  that  is  impossible.  Because 
you  can  choose  there  the  full  sweetness  of 
doing  nothing,  or  put  the  little  busy  bee  so 
out  of  conceit  with  itself  it  feels  suicidal.  Such 
lots  to  do,  to  see,  to  say,  to  eat.  Wilt  ride  ? — here 
are  horses.  Wilt  walk?— here  are  woods.  Ber- 
ries in  varieties  for  stealing — flowers  to  pluck 


F          O          REWORD 

or  let  alone.  A  cushiony  swing,  an  enchanted 
auto  —  it  might  run  over  mere  folks  hut  stops 
dead  for  a  chicken  —  lashins  to  eat,  what  you 
will  to  drink  —  in  short  a  combination — Del- 
monico's  plus  the  Garden  of  Eden  —  and  then 
some. 

Naturally,  I  was  loath  to  let  in  the  outside 
world  on  anything  so  gorgeous.  But  being  in 
literature  —  for  revenue  only  —  and  having 
hypnotized  sundry  editor-folk  into  a  belief  that 
I  can  put  outdoors  on  paper,  I  said  "Here  I 
write.  Not  everything,  of  course  —  but  just 
the  staid,  proper  things  that  will  not  tread  on 
the  corns  of  anybody's  modesty."  Result,  what 
follows  these  few  incongruous  remarks.  The 
Sells  family  are  as  generous  as  they  are  kind, 
so  didn't  mind  my  making  it  known  that  they 
had  a  corner  on  Paradise. 

Jesting  aside,  I  am  very,  very  happy,  if  what 
I  wrote  shall  be  the  means  of  returning  to  them, 
in  even  the  smallest  measure,  the  pleasure  they 
have  given  me.  In  writing  thus  colloquially, 
with  the  privileged  impertinence  which  knows 
its  jest  will  be  well  taken,  I  have  tried  to  say 

[12 


FOREWORD 

more  between  the  lines  than  in  them.  Almost 
a  stranger,  they  took  me  in ;  desolate,  broken  in 
health  and  spirit,  they  welcomed  me  as  one  of 
their  own.  It  is  with  joy,  indeed,  that  I  sign 
myself,  still  their  friend's  friend,  and  also 
Their  Own  Friend, 

MARTHA   McCULLOCH-WILLIAMS 


13] 


A  LAND  LOVER  AND 
HIS  LAND 


TH  E      F  A  It  M  II  or  SK 
A      STUDY      IN     EVOLUTION 

ALSO     AN      EXAMPLE     OF      THE     VIRTUES 
OF     OMISSION 


UNDERSTAND,  this  is  the 
story  of  an  actual  farm,  not  a 
"gentleman's  country  place;" 
and,  though  it  lies  ten  miles  from  a 
railway  station,  no  less  a  lemon,  the 
owner  and  active  head  of  it  is  likewise 
head  of  a  business  international  in 
scope,  with  main  offices  on  Broad 
Street,  New  York  City.  The  business, 
public  accounting,  demands,  impera- 
tively, far- sighted,  clear  judgment 
and  intense  concentration  of  mind — 
things  well  nigh  impossible  unless  the 
mind  has  the  backing  of  a  sound  body. 
To  maintain  this  saving  bodily  sound- 
ness in  the  days  before  the  farm,  the 
farmer  man  spent  half  his  leisure  on 
horseback.  That  was  a  bit  costly, 
withal  tiresome.  One  wearies  of  the 
finest  bridle-path  or  parkway  if  one 

17] 


A  LAND -LOVER  AND  HIS  LAND 

sees  it  half  the  days  in  the  year. 
Hence  it  appears  the  farm  began  in  a 
horse's  legs,  supplemented  by  horse- 
sense,  and  something  of  natural  incli- 
nation. 

In  the  seven  years  since  that  be- 
ginning, a  ragged  run-down  farm  in 
northern  Westchester  county  has  been 
wholly  transformed.  It  was  bought 
cheap,  considering  its  location,  within 
thirty-five  miles  of  the  city,  but  to  the 
farming  eye  it  was  dear  at  any  price - 
a  mere  spread  of  marsh  and  rocks, 
interspersed  with  lean  small  fields,  and 
starveling  mowing  lots,  inclosed  by 
toppling  stone  walls  or  unkempt  wire 
fences.  There  was  scarcely  an  out- 
building worthy  the  name.  The  house, 
though  staunchly  built,  was  cramped ; 
moreover,  upon  its  outer  parts  the 
scroll-saw  had  done  its  worst.  Still,  the 

[18 


HORSE     AND     A  W  A  Y  ! 
THE     LAND-LOVER     IS     ALSO     A     HORSE-LOVER 


A     LAND-LOVER     AND     HIS     LAND 

place  had  the  redemption  of  orchard 
trees,  old  and  young,  the  comfort  of 
living  water  — four  fine  springs  — and 
the  crowning  mercy  of  fringing  wood- 
/y    land,  so  wild,  so  fern -filled,  it  was  a 
ff        benediction. 

/  /  The  transformation  has  been  gradual, 

/  and,  to  a  degree,   unintentional.    At 

f  first,  the  new  owner  thought  of  noth- 

ing beyond  a  place  to  keep  his  horses 
in  comfort,  raise  feed  for  them,  and 
shelter  himself  over  week-ends,  or  upon 
such  nights  as  he  was  able  to  run  up, 
and  gallop  back  and  forth  to  the  trains. 
But  he  found  country  living  a  habit 
that  grew  upon  him.  It  likewise  grew 
on  his  family.  Especially  after  his 
wife  fell  ill, — so  desperately  ill  the  fore- 
most doctors  gave  her  absolutely  no 
hope, — she  pined  for  quiet,  and  the 
comfort  of  green  things.  The  farm 

19] 


A     L  A  N  1)  -  L  ( )  V  K  It     A  N  I)     HIS     1,  A  N  I) 

gave  her  both— and  something  more. 
Today,  after  years  in  bed  and  in  a 
wheel-chair,  she  is  the  happy,  busy, 
house- mistress,  -able  to  walk  about 
the  fields,  joying  to  work  in  the  dirt 
with  her  own  hands,  and  almost  abject 
in  devotion  to  her  poultry -yard  and 
her  pigs. 

Both  are  mighty  important  in  farm 
economy.  The  one  hard  and  fast  rule 
is  that  this  farm  must  feed  itself. 
There  are  exceptions,  of  course,  in 
favor  of  groceries,  butcher's  meat  and 
wheat  flour.  It  has  its  own  rye  flour 
and  corn  meal,  as  well  as  hams,  bacon, 
fowls  of  every  sort,  and  fruits  and  veg- 
etables in  profusion.  There  are  fresh 
eggs  the  year  round,  true  gilt-edge 
butter,  Jersey  cream,  milk  and  butter- 
milk. Nothing  is  ever  sold;  any  sur- 
plus is  given  away.  The  marvel  is  that 

[20 


MORNING     INSPECTION 

UNDRESS     PARADE 
THE     LAND-LOVER     VIEWING     HIS     PETS 


A     LAND-LOVER     AND      HIS     LAND 

there  should  ever  be  a  surplus.  Besides 
the  family  and  guests,  there  are  hired 
men  to  feed,  also  house-servants, — to 
say  nothing  of  the  fowls  and  pigs,  the 
dairy  herd,  the  yoke  of  oxen,  and  the 
horses,  mules  and  colts. 

The  farmer,  albeit  not  even  a 
millionaire,  prefers  that  insubstantial 
increment,  the  joys  of  rest  and  of 
living.  Yet  there  is  a  substantial  side 
to  it.  He  has  bought  more  land,  bits 
here  and  there,  until  his  holding  is 
above  two  hundred  and  fifty  acres. 
With  the  incursion  of  summer  resi- 
dents, and  the  consequent  rise  in  real 
estate,  he  could  sell,  and  not  merely 
save  himself  whole,  but  have  a  very 
handsome  profit.  Against  the  expenses 
of  maintenance  there  are  offsets,  very 
considerable  ones.  In  the  days  before 
the  farm,  necessary  horseback  exercise 

21] 


A     LAND-LOVER     AND     HIS     LAND 

cost  him  about  three  thousand  dollars 
a  year ;  and,  further,  the  expense  of  a 
summer  cottage  by  the  seashore,  or  in 
the  mountains,  was  always  around  five 
thousand.  Now  the  family  do  not  care 
for  summer  cottages.  Even  from  auto- 
mobile tours,  they  are  eager  to  get 
back  to  the  farm.  It  is  home ;  the  city 
apartment,  maintained  all  the  year 
round,  is  only  an  abiding  place.  They 
are  striking  root  in  the  soil,  and 
thriving  accordingly.  Doctors'  bills, 
once  very  considerable,  have  shrunk 
almost  out  of  sight. 

Of  the  original  buildings,  only  a 
ramshackle  barn  and  the  shell  of  the 
farmhouse  remain.  The  house,  shorn 
of  its  scrolls,  newly  roofed  and  painted, 
furnished  with  open  plumbing,  and 
supplemented  with  porches,  a  piazza, 
and  various  additions,  fits  so  well  into 

[22 


THE     TENNIS     COURT 

SACKED     TO     LOW -BALLS,     HIGH-BALLS,    AND     OTHER      BALLS 
SCORE,      LOVE-ALL 


A     LAND-LOVER     AND     HIS     LAND 

its  environment  it  would  be  a  pity 
to  supplant  it  even  with  something 
better.  It  is  livable  the  year  round, 
notwithstanding  the  rigors  of  the  hill 
country.  In  the  cellar  there  is  a  fur- 
nace big  enough  to  rout  arctic  weather, 
even  though  it  burns  nothing  but 
wood  from  the  home  forest.  Wind- 
falls and  the  tops  of  timber  trees, 
supply  fuel  in  abundance.  The  farmer 
has  a  knack  of  architecture,  and  joys 
to  do  farm  building  by  day's  work, 
from  his  own  plans.  It  also  pleases 
him  to  cut  logs  in  his  own  woods,  ox- 
haul  them  to  mill,  and  fetch  them 
back  in  lumber  sawn  to  order.  In  fact, 
he  keeps  a  lumber -pile  always  in 
reserve,  and  seasoning.  He  keeps  also 
a  fairly  complete  carpenter's  shop,  a 
forge,  and  blacksmith's  tools.  Indeed, 
it  is  a  liberal  education  in  providence 

23] 


A     LAND-LOVER     AND     HIS     LAND 

and  contrivance,  to  see  his  barns,  his 
bins,  his  dairy,  his  cellar,  his  smoke- 
house, his  well -house.  After  seeing, 
you  feel  sure  that,  if  he  had  not  turned 
out  a  great  accountant,  he  would  have 
been  a  sort  of  Edison  for  domestic 
convenience. 

By  the  well-house  and  water-supply 
hangs  a  story,  short  but  instructive. 
There  was  a  well  in  commission,  good 
but  insufficient.  As  has  been  said, 
there  were  also  springs.  The  boldest 
of  them  came  out  in  the  woods  half  a 
mile  away.  So  an  engineer  came  and 
made  plans  for  delivering  its  waters  at 
the  house  by  means  of  an  hydraulic 
ram.  The  cost?  Oh,  a  trifle — eight 
thousand  dollars;  moreover,  the  ram 
would  run  itself.  The  farmer  said 
nothing — he  was  thinking  deeply.  A 
little  way  off  the  house  was  another 

[24 


PIGS     NOT     IN     CLOVER, 
BUT     IN"     PIG     PARADISE 

U  VSH  ADO  WED     BY      KNOWLEDGE     THAT     THE     END 
OF     PIG     IS     BACON' 


A     LAND-LOVER     AND     HIS     LAND 

spring,  —  sluggish,  to  be  sure,  but 
making  marsh  of  some  good  land.  He 
had  the  water  analyzed ;  it  turned  out 
free  of  contamination.  Next  he  dug 
down  to  bedrock,  struck  a  bolder 
stream  there,  controlled  it  by  pump- 
ing out,  while  a  cemented  wall  was 
built  to  a  little  above  earth  level,  set  a 
tight,  small  house  above  the  walled 
spring,  laid  pipes  from  it,  put  in  a 
windmill,  and  two  tanks,  one  outside, 
one  in  the  attic,  and  found  he  had 
abundant  water  for  everything — at  a 
cost  of  less  than  one  thousand  dollars. 
Marsh  land  has  been  underdrained, 
not  with  tile  but  native  stone;  thus 
there  is  double  betterment,  —  every 
stone  out  of  the  way  means  a  bit  more 
of  arable  land.  Stone  walls,  stout  and 
trig,  are  making  haste  slowly  to  inclose 
the  farm.  The  farm  hands  have  laid 

25] 


A     LAND-LOVER     AND     HIS     LAND 

the  most  part  of  them,  as  farm -bred 
oxen  have  hauled  the  stones.  Little 
fertilizer  has  been  bought;  but  what 
with  green  crops,  and  the  saving 
of  barnyard  manure,  ploughland  and 
meadows  alike  come  yearly  into  better 
heart.  One  season,  by  special  cultiva- 
tion and  heavy  fertilizing,  there  was 
corn  so  rank  and  tall  and  heavy-eared 
it  was  the  talk  of  the  countryside. 
Muck  in  quantity  has  helped  to  redeem 
the  garden  from  thirst  and  bareness. 
This  has  meant  work,  of  course,  which, 
in  turn,  has  meant  money ;  but  could 
money  be  spent  for  more  excellent, 
more  saving  work? 

For  a  time,  horses— horses  for  riding, 
driving,  what  not  -sufficed.  But  in 
the  end  came  the  automobile.  It  is  a 
big  touring-car,  strictly  a  farm  belong- 
ing. It  fetches  the  farm  folk  to  town, 

[26 


THE     TROUT     POND 
WHERE     ONE     MAY      RECALL     IZAAK     WALTON'S     CAUTION 

AS     TO     THE     BAIT -MINNOW 
"USE     THEM     AS     THOUGH     YOU     LOVED     THEM" 


A  LAND- LOVER  AND  HIS  LAND 

or  to  the  trains,  and  takes  them  back 
again;  but  is  rarely  kept  in  the  city, 
even  overnight. 

The  chauffeur,  a  trained  mechanic, 
makes  most  of  the  repairs.  Thanks 
to  his  care  and  skill,  they  are  never 
tedious.  He  stands,  in  authority,  next 
to  the  farmer  himself;  so  his  wages 
can  not  be  charged  wholly  to  the  car- 
account.  It  is  about  one  thousand  dol- 
lars yearly;  throughout  the  winter 
months  the  machine  is  rarely  used. 
The  garage  stands  well  away  from 
other  buildings,  thereby  minimizing 
danger  of  fire  or  explosion. 

Inevitably,  there  is  a  tennis  court - 
a  notably  excellent  one,  earth-floored, 
and  walled  with  netting  to  a  height 
the  wildest  volleying  does  not  over- 
pass. It  neighbors  the  formal  garden, 
where  foxgloves  and  Canterbury  bells, 

27] 


A     LAND-LOVKR     AND     HIS     LAND 

clove  pinks  and  gillyflowers,  nod  you 
a  stately  welcome,  or  ruffle  contempt 
one  of  another.  But  you  forget  their 
high  ways,  their  formal  prettiness, 
when  you  fall  under  spell  of  the  woods. 
They  run  to  above  a  hundred  acres, 
are  full  of  rocky  ledges,  long  gray 
mossy  boulders,  and  the  greenest  shade. 
Brake-ferns  stand  waist-high ;  maiden- 
hair in  thick  tufts  rises  to  the  knee; 
sword -fern,  lace -fern,  staghorn-fern, 
and  many  others,  spring  rank  on  rank 
from  black  earth,  whose  richness  is 
further  attested  by  the  tall  white  spires 
of  cohosh,  known  otherwise  as  rattle- 
snake-weed. Two  brooks  thread  the 
wood,  murmuring  or  tinkling  over  big 
stones.  Along  them,  in  spring,  there 
are  sheaves  of  purple  iris ;  in  the  height 
of  high  summer,  other  sheaves  of 
cardinal  -  flower,  scarlet  as  sin,  and 

[28 


A     GREEN     SILENCE 

I.IT     WITH     CARDINAL-FLOWER      FJLAME     OR 
THE     PURPLE     OF      IRIS 


A     LAN  I) -LOVER     AND     HIS     LAND 

prouder  than  pride;  other  flowers  in 
quantity,  white,  pink,  purple,  yellow, 
vari-colored,  too  many  to  name.  With 
fair  luck,  you  may  surprise  a  squirrel; 
but  only  a  rare  chance  brings  you  upon 
a  partridge — a  mother  bird,  with  her 
brood,  who,  after  vain  lurings  of  calls 
and  fluttering  wings,  walks  boldly  into 
sight,  ruff  up,  wings  drooping,  crying 
aloud  to  her  peeping,  scattered  brood. 
She  makes  you  half  forget  that  your 
destination  is  the  trout  pond,  made  by 
damming  the  brooks  after  they  have 
joined.  Trout  are  plenty  in  it, —you 
see  them  leap  and  dart  all  over  the 
silver  face  of  the  pond.  But  they  are 
too  newly  planted  as  yet  for  catching ; 
other  years,  there  will  be  another  story. 
This  story  has  no  moral,  beyond  the 
fact  of  verity.  North  Castle  Farm  is 
underdrawn  rather  than  overdrawn. 

29] 


A     L  A  N  I)  -  L  0  V  E  II     AND     HIS     LAND 

The  owner  of  it  regards  it  as  his  most 
profitable  investment,  -  this  finan- 
cially, no  less  than  spiritually.  In  the 
deep  peace  of  its  winter  evenings,  he 
has  thought  out  straight  things  other- 
wise very  puzzling.  He  has  also 
thought  out  things  of  use  and  value  to 
himself  primarily,  but  of  more  use  and 
value  to  the  world  at  large.  His  farm 
and  his  farming,  instead  of  causing 
him  to  lose  time  from  business,  save  it, 
by  enabling  him  to  do,  in  one  busi- 
ness hour,  the  work  of  two.  Should 
encroaching  trolleys  and  apartment 
houses  ever  drive  him  from  North 
Castle,  it  is  safe  to  say  he  will  find  a 
farm  in  regions  more  remote. 

His  example  is  beyond  the  mass; 
still,  there  are  business  men,  in  thou- 
sands, who  might  follow  it.  Plenty  of 
them  pine  to  do  it,  yet  are  deterred  by 

[30 


KIMIK.i:  ACROSS  THE   RAGING   TORRENT 
TWO  INCHES  PEEP 


304992 


A     LAND-LOVER     AND     HIS     LAND 

not  knowing  how.  Let  all  such  take 
heart  of  grace.  In  these  days  of  auto- 
cars, open  plumbing,  and  outdoor  lit- 
erature, all  things  are  possible  to  him 
who  dares.  Country -living  is  most 
problematic  when  looked  at  in  per- 
spective. Good  judgment  and  human 
kindness  will  resolve  all  its  difficulties 
-even  the  servant  problem  No  sort 
of  life  is  all  beer  and  skittles ;  the  ser- 
pent Care  lurks  in  every  paradise. 
But,  while  the  good  green  earth  so 
invites  to  her  help  and  healing,  it  is 
piteous  that  so  many  turn  to  her  ears 
without  hearing. 


31  J 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


MAR  2  01968 


Form  L9-Series  444 


II I II  Illll  I /Minn, 


A'    OOM0751?1 


\ 


